Category: Alaska News

Maybe it’s because of the winter we had, with its lingering cold and back-to-back storms, but I’ve been deep in spring cleaning this season. I’ve always hoarded papers — old handouts, notes and fliers — but I’m not organized enough to know what’s where, so it’s always a bit of a surprise where information shows up, and this year, I want to change that.

In March, around the time Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced his bill asking the legislature to approve tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG pipeline, I uncovered a forgotten notebook from 2018. One page contains a statement from an Alaska Gas Development Corporation public meeting assuring attendees that long-term contracts with international buyers would be finalized by 2025. Another page, from another meeting later that year, outlines a timeline promising “first cargo” in late 2024. 

These contradictory notes motivated me to dig through my personal archives, the unlabeled folders in beer boxes and stacks of undated notebooks, for more records of public meetings about this speculative pipeline. Concerned about the impacts the project would have on my neighborhood, Alaska more generally, and the planet, I attended Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meetings and AGDC public relations presentations in the Denali Borough throughout the regulatory process, and I was curious about what I wrote down.

What I found is often frustrating. 

“That’s a good question, next time we’ll bring a geologist,” a FERC official said, in response to concerns about building a pipeline across the Denali Fault. 

“That’s a good point, we should start thinking about Western Alaska energy costs,” AGDC said to people who had been thinking about it for decades. 

Once, someone suggested a bike path could be built on top of the pipeline if its route paralleled the Parks Highway through the Denali Borough. But the bike path or the woman who proposed it were never mentioned again. 

At another meeting, someone who had just arrived in Alaska from a pipeline project in Papua New Guinea told us, in response to questions about safety, that “you can pour [LNG] in a glass, boil it, and drink the water,” as if the question was about drinkability of gas that no one was able to ascertain we’d have access to for utilities, let alone consumption. He said we could learn more on YouTube, which is how I learned about local conflicts and displacements surrounding the Papua New Guinea gasline. In the margins, I wrote a note: “YouTube. No wonder he needed a new job.” They tossed around dates and dollar amounts like confetti. I wrote them down, often accompanied by question marks. 

If this sounds disjointed, it’s because it has been.

Sometimes, presentations would focus on air quality in Asia, and frame Alaska gas, transported hundreds of miles before being shipped across the ocean, as the only viable solution to improving it. The next year, the emphasis would be on endangered polar bears, floating helplessly on diminishing sea ice, whose only hope was that Alaska could contribute methane rather than CO2 to the rapidly warming climate. But by 2022, all pretense of environmental concern had been abandoned, and the AGDC representative who visited Healy told us that investments in sustainability, or the Environmental, Social and Government framework “is killing everybody.” (“Where’s the bears lol” I wrote in my notes. But I think we all know it was never about the bears.)

But the image that has remained most consistent over the decade plus that I’ve been following this process is one I found on a printout of AK LNG-branded slides from 2015. It’s a 3×4 grid, each gray rectangle containing a dollar sign, and a yellow diagonal line representing a general upward trend. It’s accompanied by a second graph, again without numbers, whose bars get taller across an unmarked axis — showing supposed investment in local economies, though that investment was not promised, just vibes, and when asked for specifics, AK LNG representatives answered with vague statements about boroughs or regional corporations maybe stepping in.

According to this decade-old slide, the estimated cost of the project was $45-65 billion, which is quite a range, and interesting given that the number $44 billion keeps getting tossed around now, as if pipeline construction is the one thing that has miraculously gotten cheaper since 2015. 

Following recent legislative hearings, and watching Glenfarne executives attempt to justify their asks for free gravel and tax-exempt passage across state, borough and private lands, it seems that the laughably vague dollar sign graphs are still the best available data. Glenfarne is simply the latest character in a saga that has outlived its welcome.

They haven’t sent out any brochures or hosted any meetings, but I’m trying to write down what they say anyway, so that a few years from now, I can flip though my now organized and labeled folders and highlight the dates that came and went, the promises made and abandoned, just the latest in an archive of corporate lies.

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The Alaska Legislature approved a broad omnibus crime bill that will increase criminal penalties for a variety of offenses and streamline victims services. The bill includes over a dozen pieces of legislation and garnered bipartisan support.

The Alaska Senate unanimously passed House Bill 239 on Tuesday, after assembling the combination bill package over the last several weeks. Lawmakers in the House concurred with the Senate’s changes by a vote of 39 to 1 on Wednesday morning. It now advances to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.

The omnibus crime bill includes provisions to create stricter criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material, hit-and-run incidents and sexual assault by a healthcare worker. It also raises the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old and restructures the Alaska Board of Parole, among other items.

Sen. James Kauffman, R-Anchorage, spoke in support of the omnibus bill on Tuesday. “We hear of sausage-making in the legislative process — this is a big piece of sausage,” he said. “And having seen it in Senate Finance, I was impressed with the content, the quality of how so many things came together, and it came together so well.”

Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, carried the omnibus bill in the Senate. He noted that the state will carry some fixed and indeterminate costs for enacting the changes across several state departments, but said it’s worth the price tag to protect public safety and improve protections for victims.

“Changing the statutes is not enough. Sometimes it calls on us to have more prosecutors, more police and more people in the field to actually enforce these crimes,” he said on the Senate floor. 

“I hear consistently from the public, when we look at these public safety measures, is ‘Who’s going to be there to enforce these laws?’ This is an example in which the fiscal notes reflect that this bill will cost money, but the public really believes in it, and they want these measures to take place, and they want our public safety professionals to go and do the things they need to enforce these laws,” he said.

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, sponsored the bill to enact state criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material, and spoke in support ahead of the vote. She spoke in favor of concurrence on Wednesday morning. 

“There’s a couple of windows that I would like tighter, however we have to get agreement with every region of the state. And I think this bill does that. This bill prioritizes justice. And this is justice for all of those who have not had a voice,” she said.

Some members of the House all-Republican minority caucus raised concerns at the number of bills included in the omnibus bill and the need for more public discussion and hearing on the individual bills. But Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, argued that hearing each bill would take legislators hundreds of hours and an omnibus bill was the best way to pass and enact needed criminal policy changes. 

Rep Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, backed a bill to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old, aimed at prosecuting sexual violence against 16 and 17 year olds. “For years we were collaborating on this, whether we knew we were collaborating or not,” he said on Wednesday on the omnibus crime bill. 

“We have the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, and the majority of victims being young. Being younger is a risk factor,” he said. “What we are doing today is telling predators that 16 and 17 year olds are off limits.” 

The omnibus crime bill now includes: 

• House Bill 239 — would increase criminal penalties for hit and run incidents by drivers that cause a death and knowingly fail to stop and render assistance, and it establishes mandatory sentencing of four to seven years for a first hit and run felony conviction.
• House Bill 101 — would raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old, with provisions to allow minors to consent to sex with someone up to six years older than them. The draft bill also allows 16 and 17 year olds to consensually exchange sexual or explicit messages within the six year close-in-age gap without penalties.
• Senate Bill 247 — would create state criminal penalties for creating AI-generated child sexual abuse images or videos that depict sexually explicit or obscene content involving anyone under 18 years old.
• House Bill 62 — would establish a statewide tracking system for sexual assault examination kits, expedite processing times and ensure that survivors can privately monitor the status of their own kit. The bill was sponsored by the governor.
• Senate Bill 100 — would establish the crime of organized theft, including mail theft and medical record theft.
• House Bill 242 — would redefine criminal law to prohibit any sexual contact or assault by a healthcare worker during professional treatment, a change to the current law that only applies to patients being unaware of sexual contact or assault for criminal charges to apply. 
• Senate Bill 17 — would establish the crime of airbag fraud for knowingly selling, installing or manufacturing a counterfeit airbag in a vehicle. 
• House Bill 81 — would establish that minor marijuana related convictions remain confidential on individuals’ personal records, under certain criteria.
• House Bill 384 —  would expand confidentiality agreements between victims and service providers by updating the definition of “victim counseling center” to include tribal organizations.
• Senate Bill 233 — would reassign the administration of the Controlled Substances Advisory Committee from the Department of Law to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. 

Changes to the Board of Parole

The provision to restructure the Alaska Board of Parole was originally introduced by Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, as Senate Bill 62 last year. The provision expands the Board of Parole from five to seven members, enacts term limits of no more than two five-year terms and implements new criteria for board seats.

The Board of Parole is appointed by the governor, and is charged with reviewing applications and eligibility for parole, for which there were 199 applicants last year. Advocates and lawmakers have raised concerns around Alaska’s parole approval rates dropping significantly in recent years — to some of the lowest rates in the nation. 

Tobin and proponents of the changes to the parole board said the board’s workload was a reason to expand the board and said the added criteria for the board seats is important for fairness and accountability to those under review for parole.

The new criteria for board seats would require that one member be a licensed physician, psychologist or psychiatrist, one member have experience in the field of criminal justice, one member have experience in providing drug or alcohol addiction recovery support or who has personal experience with addiction, and one member of a federally recognized tribe in the state.

Senators also added criteria for parole eligibility so that parole board members consider an applicant’s age at the time of offense. 

While the officials with the Alaska Department of Corrections have said rising costs across the prison system are in part due to an aging population and increasing medical needs, the Board of Parole has not granted anyone geriatric or medical parole in the last five years, according to state data.

Senators included a new provision to allow the corrections commissioner to authorize medical parole of a prisoner, with electronic monitoring, if that prisoner has a terminal, permanent or progressively degenerative disease and is deemed to not pose a threat to public safety. Senators also included legislation introduced last year, Senate Bill 31, to establish an address confidentiality program to help protect victims of domestic violence or stalking and police or correctional officers and their families. Individuals enrolled in the program will have their mail forwarded to a designated post office box to help keep their home address private.

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The state of Alaska may soon offer managed retirement accounts to businesses in the state that don’t already offer a retirement plan. 

By a 31-9 vote on Monday, the Alaska House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 21, the “Alaska Work and Save” program sponsored by Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage. 

The Senate, which approved a prior version of the bill in April, gave its final approval to the House-passed version by a 17-3 vote on Tuesday.

If enacted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, SB 21 would require the Alaska Department of Revenue to create and administer an automatic individual retirement account program with open enrollment.

Under the program, eligible workers would have 5% of their paychecks automatically deducted and deposited into an investment account.

“Currently, 64% of businesses do not offer a retirement option for their employees, and this is a great way to retain and recruit workers,” said Rep. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, who sponsored the bill in the House.

Costello said the ultimate goal is for Alaska to join a partnership with one or more other states that offer similar programs like Colorado’s SecureSavings program. Sixteen other states already have those programs, she said.

Alaska’s program would allow participants to also shift some of their Permanent Fund dividend into a retirement savings account. 

The Department of Revenue estimated that the state would need to spend about $660,000 to set up the program in its first year and approximately $360,000 annually, which the state would pay for with fees collected from participants statewide.

Hospitals, fire stations and clinics in Alaska may soon have ‘baby boxes’ able to safely and anonymously accept infants surrendered by parents who may be unable to care for them. 

In a 35-5 vote Monday, the Alaska House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 9, amending the state’s safe-surrender law for infants to permit the construction of unmanned drop-off locations at public facilities. The Senate initially approved the bill in April.

SB 9, from Rep. Robb Myers, R-North Pole, is similar to legislation that has already been enacted by 22 other states.

“Safe surrender laws are a tool to help save lives,” Myers said in a prepared statement after the bill passed. “SB 9 puts another tool in the kit to help parents in crisis and keep babies in safe environments instead of the side of the road.”

The Senate voted 20-0 on Tuesday to accept the amended version of SB 9 passed by the House on Monday, an act that will send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for enactment or veto.

Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks, sponsored the bill in the House and explained that it offers an alternative to Alaska’s existing safe-surrender law, which already permits someone to surrender an infant less than 21 days old to a responsible person.

Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, was one of a handful of legislators who voted against the bill. He said he was concerned about the implications for surrendering an infant who may have been kidnapped.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Tuesday he is ordering state lawmakers into a special session to force a new decision on his top priority: property tax breaks for the company proposing to build a massive pipeline system to ship natural gas from the North Slope to tidewater.

Dunleavy outlined his plan during a news conference at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage. 

The special session, to start 10 a.m. Thursday morning, “will go on as long as they need to come up with a decision,” he said at the news conference.

The Legislature’s ongoing regular session ends at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night, and legislators will enter special session the following morning.

The governor has characterized property tax-relief for the project as his top priority, and at the news conference he accused lawmakers of risking Alaska’s future by rejecting his plan.

The bill would replace state and local petroleum property taxes with an “alternative volumetric tax” on natural gas that would eventually flow through the pipeline.  That gives Glenfarne Group, the company developing the pipeline in conjunction with the state, a tax break that its leaders have said is necessary to attract investors.

Negotiations to pass the governor’s preferred legislation fell apart on Monday, and Dunleavy blamed lawmakers for that outcome.

“This is a decision on the part of a handful of folks in Juneau who wish, for whatever reason I don’t understand, (to) play with the future of Alaska,” he said at the news conference.

Legislative critics of Dunleavy’s approach said Glenfarne had provided too little information on its cost estimates, thus making it impossible for them to determine whether the proposed tax break was appropriate. Some argued that the process had been too rushed. Dunleavy introduced his proposal in March, with the regular session half over.

But the governor had harsh words for those lawmakers. He said they were focused on the wrong things after an extremely cold winter that strained energy supplies in the populated Railbelt corridor.

“Last night there was time to shove a spay and neuter bill into an invasive species bill in (House) Finance,” he said at Tuesday’s news conference. “So Rome is burning and we’re shoving a spay and neuter bill into an invasive species bill.”

Dunleavy was referring to a popular bill to establish a statewide spay and neuter fund, House Bill 258, which was combined during Monday’s House Finance Committee meeting with another bill related to animals, Senate Bill 174, that would establish a state invasive species council. It has since been removed from the bill.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a featured speaker at the conference, also nudged lawmakers to accept Dunleavy’s plan.

As a former governor of North Dakota, Burgum said he considered it “inappropriate” for him to insert himself into Alaska legislative business. However, he said lawmakers should focus on getting the gas pipeline built before worrying about how the revenues from it would be allocated.

“The key thing for when we’re competing (for) capital that can go anywhere around the world, the key thing for Alaska is: Get the project,” he said at the news conference. Alaskans should not worry about the revenue distributions until after a project is built and providing its promised myriad economic benefits, he said.

Burgum’s comments at the news conference echoed comments he made about the gas pipeline during his address at the conference.

“That project has to happen. And I would just invite Alaska to not get in your own way if you’re worrying about, ‘How do we divide up the pie,’ and the pie hasn’t even been baked yet,” he said. He called the gasline “a generational, transformational project that’s going to affect the state, the communities, the prosperity, the universities. I mean, the benefits of this thing are unbelievable.”

But lawmakers say those benefits have not been made clear to them, and neither have the cost tradeoffs.

Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, did not mince words in a newsletter she issued Tuesday morning that said the governor has demanded that lawmakers “pass his version of a gas pipeline bill that no one is allowed to know much about.”

“His version of a gas pipeline defies our Constitution – ignoring resource development for benefit of Alaskans (benefit for a private company), surrenders our taxing authority (removes local taxation authority, forbids financial transparency, logical financial assessment),” Giessel’s newsletter said.

Dunleavy’s decision to veto a pension-overhaul bill that had been two years in the making after lawmakers rejected this gas pipeline bill was a “transactional” decision that is “the worst possible way to make public policy,” she said.

The post Dunleavy calls special session Thursday on Alaska gasline tax break appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The rising cost of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel is forcing companies that move people and goods to recoup some of the additional expense, including adding fuel surcharges to ticket prices and freight rates, with the surcharge changing as often as every week.

The U.S. Postal Service is doing the same thing. Its temporary price increase which went into effect in late April is 8% on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select.

Though the surcharge is set to remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors and the Postal Regulatory Commission could raise or lower it at any time — or vote to extend the add-on.

In addition to mailing packages, Alaskans will pay the high cost of fuel when they fly or ship goods into or out of the state. As of last week, the surcharges ranged 6% to more than 30%.

The U.S. war on Iran, along with the Persian Gulf nation’s retaliatory response to close off the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, have sent global oil prices up 75% since the start of the year, driving up the price at the pump for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products.

The average price for gasoline across the United States is up 40% from a year ago, with diesel and jet fuel up 60% to 70%, according to companies that track commodity prices.

The national average for gasoline last week was over $4.50 a gallon, up from $3.19 a year ago, according to AAA. Last week’s average was over $5.25 in Alaska, and more than $6 in California, the highest in the nation, AAA reported.

Airlines nationwide have raised baggage fees and other charges, in addition to higher air fares, rather than impose fuel-specific passenger ticket surcharges.

Alaska Airlines last month raised its checked-bag fees $5 for the first bag (now $45) and $10 for a second bag (now $55).

There is no change to the free bags allowed for Alaska residents who sign up for the airline’s Club 49 program, which allows three free checked bags for in-state travel and two bags for out-of-state flights. 

The airline’s jet fuel costs in the first three months of this year averaged $2.98 a gallon, according to its first-quarter financial report. But the company was expecting April’s bills to average around $4.75 a gallon.

The higher price anticipated for April, May and June “adds approximately $600 million of expense to the second quarter,” the company announced. “We expect to consume approximately 297 million gallons of fuel in the quarter based on our current capacity plan.”

Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes and its partner Island Air Express based on Prince of Wales Island operate about 20 aircraft serving scheduled routes in Southeast. They imposed a 6% surcharge on all fares in mid-March.

The company cites a nearly 40% increase in fuel costs. 

“We just are not able to absorb that,” said company spokesman Andy Kline. “We didn’t want to roll that cost into our fares, because we want it to be temporary,” he said. “We want it to reflect directly the cost that we’re taking on with the fuel.”

The company buys Jet A fuel for its turbine-powered aircraft, and aviation gas for its piston-driven planes.

Alaska Marines Lines, which provides weekly freight barge service from Seattle to Southeast Alaska, as of last week was adding an 18.5% surcharge on all shipments. The rate was 11% in March. It was 9.5% in March 2025.

This spring’s higher rate “reflects the escalation in fuel costs resulting from the continued disruption to global energy markets,” Ryan Dixon, director of marketing and media for the Seattle-based company, said in an email.

“Fuel is a significant component of freight operations, and this volatility is having an impact on transportation costs throughout the industry.”

AML’s surcharge is higher for longer routes that burn more fuel, including its barge service to Cordova, Valdez, Dutch Harbor, the Aleutian Islands, Western Alaska, the Arctic and Hawaii.

TOTE, which operates twice-a-week cargo ships from Tacoma, Washington, to Anchorage, set its surcharge at 29.5% effective May 17. It ties its weekly adjustments to the average U.S. West Coast diesel fuel price, as posted by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Matson, which operates twice-a-week cargo ships from Tacoma to Anchorage and Kodiak, announced its surcharge will increase to 31% as of June 7.

National and international freight haulers are doing the same thing: The surcharge on all services at FedEx will go up to 27.25% on May 24. UPS was adding 31.25% to all air shipments as of last week.

This story originally published in the Wrangell Sentinel.

The post Freight haulers, air carriers, even post office adds fuel surcharges appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

A vote pending on the last day of the Alaska Legislature’s regular session could end up canceling a long-planned ballot measure that would restrict financial donations to political candidates in the state.

Late Tuesday night, the Alaska Senate voted 12-8 to approve House Bill 16, which would impose limits on the amount of money that individuals and groups can donate to political candidates. 

That action sends the bill to the House for a simple up-or-down concurrence vote. Success would send it to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for enactment or veto.

HB 16 is substantially similar to a ballot measure scheduled for a vote during the August primary election. Under the Alaska Constitution, if lawmakers enact a substantially similar law to a ballot measure scheduled for a vote, the ballot measure vote is canceled. 

Both methods would change state law, but there’s one key difference: A ballot measure cannot be repealed for two years after voters approve it. A law may be repealed the following year if legislators and the governor approve.

In 2018, a scheduled ballot measure dealing with legislators’ conflicts of interest was removed from the ballot after legislators passed a substantially similar law. In 2019, they rolled back that law.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, arranged Tuesday night’s vote on HB 16. He has previously sought to impose campaign finance limits.

“I think (the ballot measure) is going to pass overwhelmingly, and this would save a little bit of money,” he said of the decision to advance HB 16. 

State law requires ballot measure information be published in a pamphlet that is sent to voters. In addition, the Division of Elections is required to hold in-person presentations at locations across the state to explain each ballot measure.

Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, helped orchestrate the ballot measure and House Bill 16.

Late Tuesday, he said he was surprised by the Senate’s action and was not informed until shortly before it took place.

“To see them pass it relatively unchanged was quite surprising, and a pleasant surprise,” he said, noting that he and his colleagues have been seeking new campaign finance limits in Alaska for five years.

In 2021, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Alaska’s then-existing campaign finance limits were unconstitutional.

The Alaska Department of Law declined to appeal that ruling. Speaking to reporter Nat Herz months later, Dunleavy said, “You know me: I’m the guy that wants people to be able to drive four wheelers on the road. I’m a freedom guy,” he said. “My tendency is to just let people do what they want in campaign finance law, as long as it’s disclosed and it’s accurate.”

As a result, the state’s 2022, 2024 and 2026 elections have operated with no restrictions on the amount of money a person can give to a candidate.

The Alaska House passed Schrage’s bill in April 2025, but the Senate took no action before adjourning that year. That inaction meant the 2026 election cycle opened without limits. 

“We took it up last year, and there just wasn’t the support to do it at that time,” Wielechowski said.

What changed?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, people just — honestly, it just kind of got buried in everything else, and just going through bills, we saw it was there, and we said, ‘Well, I have a chance to maybe take it off the ballot and pass it.’”

Neither Wielechowski or Schrage have talked to Dunleavy about whether he would veto the measure or allow it to become law.

If HB 16 becomes law, or if the proposed ballot measure is adopted by voters, new limits would be in place for the 2028 election. 

The new individual limits would be $2,000 in donations per candidate in each two-year election cycle. For the governor’s race, where a lieutenant governor candidate and governor candidate run together on a single ticket, the limit would be $4,000. The limit for donations from one person to a political party or group would be $5,000.

If a group wants to donate to a candidate, the limit is $4,000, or $8,000 for the governor’s race.

Those limits would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years.

Schrage said he’s open to either HB 16 or the ballot measure.

“It is very widely popular, and so — one way or another, I just want to see this taken and taken up and put back into law,” he said.

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Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Tuesday he is ordering state lawmakers into a special session to force a new decision on his top priority: property tax breaks for the company proposing to build a massive pipeline system to ship natural gas from the North Slope to tidewater.

Dunleavy outlined his plan during a news conference at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage. 

The special session, to start 10 a.m. Thursday morning, “will go on as long as they need to come up with a decision,” he said at the news conference.

The Legislature’s ongoing regular session ends at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night, and legislators will enter special session the following morning.

The governor has characterized property tax-relief for the project as his top priority, and at the news conference he accused lawmakers of risking Alaska’s future by rejecting his plan.

The bill would replace state and local petroleum property taxes with an “alternative volumetric tax” on natural gas that would eventually flow through the pipeline.  That gives Glenfarne Group, the company developing the pipeline in conjunction with the state, a tax break that its leaders have said is necessary to attract investors.

Negotiations to pass the governor’s preferred legislation fell apart on Monday, and Dunleavy blamed lawmakers for that outcome.

“This is a decision on the part of a handful of folks in Juneau who wish, for whatever reason I don’t understand, (to) play with the future of Alaska,” he said at the news conference.

Legislative critics of Dunleavy’s approach said Glenfarne had provided too little information on its cost estimates, thus making it impossible for them to determine whether the proposed tax break was appropriate. Some argued that the process had been too rushed. Dunleavy introduced his proposal in March, with the regular session half over.

But the governor had harsh words for those lawmakers. He said they were focused on the wrong things after an extremely cold winter that strained energy supplies in the populated Railbelt corridor.

“Last night there was time to shove a spay and neuter bill into an invasive species bill in (House) Finance,” he said at Tuesday’s news conference. “So Rome is burning and we’re shoving a spay and neuter bill into an invasive species bill.”

Dunleavy was referring to a popular bill to establish a statewide spay and neuter fund, House Bill 258, which was combined during Monday’s House Finance Committee meeting with another bill related to animals, Senate Bill 174, that would establish a state invasive species council. It has since been removed from the bill.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a featured speaker at the conference, also nudged lawmakers to accept Dunleavy’s plan.

As a former governor of North Dakota, Burgum said he considered it “inappropriate” for him to insert himself into Alaska legislative business. However, he said lawmakers should focus on getting the gas pipeline built before worrying about how the revenues from it would be allocated.

“The key thing for when we’re competing (for) capital that can go anywhere around the world, the key thing for Alaska is: Get the project,” he said at the news conference. Alaskans should not worry about the revenue distributions until after a project is built and providing its promised myriad economic benefits, he said.

Burgum’s comments at the news conference echoed comments he made about the gas pipeline during his address at the conference.

“That project has to happen. And I would just invite Alaska to not get in your own way if you’re worrying about, ‘How do we divide up the pie,’ and the pie hasn’t even been baked yet,” he said. He called the gasline “a generational, transformational project that’s going to affect the state, the communities, the prosperity, the universities. I mean, the benefits of this thing are unbelievable.”

But lawmakers say those benefits have not been made clear to them, and neither have the cost tradeoffs.

Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, did not mince words in a newsletter she issued Tuesday morning that said the governor has demanded that lawmakers “pass his version of a gas pipeline bill that no one is allowed to know much about.”

“His version of a gas pipeline defies our Constitution – ignoring resource development for benefit of Alaskans (benefit for a private company), surrenders our taxing authority (removes local taxation authority, forbids financial transparency, logical financial assessment),” Giessel’s newsletter said.

Dunleavy’s decision to veto a pension-overhaul bill that had been two years in the making after lawmakers rejected this gas pipeline bill was a “transactional” decision that is “the worst possible way to make public policy,” she said.

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